I'm trying to understand the way Mastodon works. Back in the day I started with IRC and then the many php-based forums and then reddit which led to lemmy. I never used twitter or similar platforms.
My understanding (and this is where I need help) is that all of the above are topic-based, whereas Mastodon is person-based? What I mean is that on lemmy I subscribe to things based on topic and I don't really care about usernames or user profiles, I only care about discussing a topic. It seems to me like Mastodon is the opposite? You follow persons and what they might say about any topic?
Is there something I'm missing here? Are hashtags close enough to sorting it by topic that it works just like a topic based platform? Is this difference inherent or just in my head because I don't understand Mastodon?

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[–] 4Robato@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

There's people who want to follow other people because you can follow specific associations, independent journalists, etc. If you are like that Mastodon will help with that but if you prefer broader topics no matter the source you have Lemmy. This are two distinct social media which belong to two distinct groups as other mentioned like microblogging and a more standard forum.

I prefer Lemmy because I like to follow topics and I get more involved in the discussions but sometimes I want to check on someone and the best way is to go to a Mastodon like platform.

I mean you don't need to use each social media every day, some will fit more your personality and you will use that more but that doesn't mean you can't open the other one from time to time.